Bill Caswell suffered a tough wreck on Friday during practice for the Pikes Peak Hill Climb. His homebuilt BMW entered a virtual hairpin turn flat out in fourth gear and then tried to bury itself into the mountainside. The car that has survived dozens of North American rallies, a couple WRC events, and countless close calls appears to be dead by the hand of the legendary Pikes Peak mountain road.
While it stinks that Bill is out, we’re glad to hear that he and co-driver Ron are OK, if not a little sore. We are not sure what led to the pair heading into the turn at full tilt, but when we catch up with Bill, we’ll find out. Caswell’s spirits were high and he was planning on really putting the wood to the car in practice to make a strong run up the mountain. The wreck happened at Engineer’s Corner, one of the tightest corners on the whole course and a spot that has swallowed man a racer over the years.
We’re going to catch up with Bill for more info, but here are the remains from Bill’s race car .
To quote a line from one of our favorite movies, “The Big Lebowski” –
“They finally did it….they killed my F!@king car.”
Here are the rest of the photos —
.jpg "Caswell wreck 1")
.jpg "BMW Wreck")
hard hit. wow. lucky
That mountain is to be respected. Very lucky…looks like a walkaway deal.
There are many more BMW’s out there.
Bill and co-pilot, those their not making anymore of, the car did it’s job, and they walked away. Like Remy said, that big pile of rocks is to be respected
Whew! Talk about a unibody adjustment….